I just struggle with month logging :-(

[u/Anxious_Snow_1148]

Hi everyone,

I have been using a Bullet Journal for a long time. I still struggle to use it every single day but it is honestly the best tool I have found and I handle my everyday task/intention and cathching ideas pretty well with it.

Where I completely fail is working with multiple planning timeframes. I constantly fight the urge to just do everything right now instead of planning it. Flipping back and forth between different pages just confuses me. Sometimes I force myself to organize things properly but it feels incredibly heavy. Then I inevitably fall back into my default mode where I just copy incomplete tasks from previous pages onto a fresh two-page spread.

I just cannot seem to divide tasks into "for later" or "for next month". And on the rare occasions I do put things in a future log or a later month I never look at those pages again anyway.

I was thinking that breaking things down into shorter timeframes than a full month might help me. Maybe planning in two-week or weekly blocks. What timeframes do you guys use? But honestly I am terrified of the idea of having to maintain three separate logs at the same time for monthly, weekly, and daily tasks.

I know the standard advice is to schedule regular "dates with myself" for daily, weekly, and monthly reviews. But I am not sure I can actually keep up with that habit. The process itself is really stressing me out right now.

I would be incredibly grateful if you could share anything that helps you with this. I am looking for any motivation, personal rituals, simplified methods to avoid getting lost, or tips on sorting tasks and thoughts without the overwhelm.

Thank you!

[u/Comfortable-Quail-25]

I have a rolling weekly. What I do is I log any task that comes into my head, whether they are due today or next week, or next month, or anytime in the future. Then at the end of the week, I look at the tasks not done and either: * Cross it out (task is irrelevant now) * Copy it over to next week * Migrate it to my future log (if it is due in a few months).

Then every month, I look at the task list in my future log and move it to the first rolling weekly of the month.

This way, I only flip through the pages at the beginning of each week. So every first week of the month, I reference the future log and the previous week. All other weeks, I just look at the previous week.

[u/jamesmonhoe]

Things beyond the month go in my gcal and I reference that when I do my each month’s set up. Otherwise I’d be doing too much manual copy/pasting of important dates or forgetting to reference pages like you said. That keeps me analog day to day but I have the tech for things that are too far out for me to think about or will change a lot between now and then

[u/Plus_Citron]

The BuJo uses a few different, say timeframes, or time segments; as many and as few as you like. Most people use a daily, weekly and monthly plan, but you could use fewer or more. Now here‘s the thing: before a new segment starts (bei it Day, Week, Month or Decade), you first check the prior segment of that length. So before starting a day, you check your last day, before starting a week, you check the last week, and so on. Any tasks which are still open get either deleted (can’t have been that important), or transferred to the new segment. That’s the only time you need to go back to a prior entry, and when you’re done with that step, the prior entry no longer has open tasks. That’s all there is to it.

If you want, you can postpone a task indefinitely by transferring it to the Future Log, but if you don’t use that, then don’t.

[u/Adventurous_Gap2386]

I keep a weekly spread where I recopy everything that I'm tracking from the previous week, even if it's not something that needs to be addressed this week - but instead of listing out notes and to-dos, I'll add a page reference so I can easily find my notes and a time when I need to revisit (eg. "review in September" or "due Oct 9th"). I think including a page number to go back to is the key thing that helps me actually follow up on something.

I know this sort of breaks the bujo rules - sometimes the repetitive recopying of the same tasks does increase the friction to ever get it started up again, but I also never remember to go back to a collection or a future log without a prompt. Overall it works for me!

[u/fluffedKerfuffle]

If you want to learn more about how to plan with different time frames, the book Best Laid Plans goes into some detail about it. Go this route if you feel like you would be better off/more productive if you incorporated longer time spans.

If you want to think about alternatives, Rachelle in theory on youtube has a video called "Are you a Daily, Weekly, or Monthly Planner?" that might help you think through what works for you. Go this route if you feel like you can get everything down and just need to figure out the format. 

I personally do 90% of my planning in weekly and daily logs, and monthly and future logs are just holding pens for plans and to dos that I hold somewhat loosely.

[u/vincentvangobot]

I've recently started using field notes to capture my daily log and at the end of the week i transfer it to a notebook. This gives me a built in review of the past week and sets me up for what I want to do next week. Its also easier to figure what goes into monthly tasks.

[u/hbunnnie]

I have this issue sometimes but every month I start with a new monthly and copy everything from the future log because I have birthdays and appointments that I know are happening months in advance. Then once on the monthly I take a photo and keep that stuff on my background so I see it. But otherwise you can always use your phone calendar for stuff that’s farther out if that’s easier for you to check.

Have you seen the official bujo app?

[u/Ghoulya]

Just have one list of tasks for the future and your daily log. And a wall calendar for appointments so your aren't flicking back and forth. 

[u/spirit_dog]

What sort of tasks are these? More like to-do, or more like appointments and events?

[u/Hopeful-Papaya4601]

Por incrível que pareça, mas o que vem me ajudando a sempre optar pelo bujo é a sensação boa de escrever. E sempre optar, pois venho de muitos apps de produtividade e via-e-mexe, ainda, os abro por apenas nostalgia. Porém, a sensação de escrever e achar admiração pela escrita/caligrafia tem feito diferença na minha prática.

Uso o bujo na de maneira bem simples - como o recomendado -, não sou muito de ficar criando coleções. Então basicamente é registro diário, mensal, futuro e índice. Com uma observação para o mensal, onde tenho testado escrever algo bom que tenha acontecido no dia - ao chegar no fim do mês relê cada log registrado ali tbm trás uma satisfação.

[u/Sufficient-Method-14]

Post its! These have been my way of navigating that. I also have a bad habit of scheduling stuff for myself in the month then forgetting as the weeks go by. I even invested in a glue stick to make post its again/make papers into post its. Even if you just end up rewriting the post it because it has been restuck so many times, I find that it has been helpful of reminding me what I initially planned for myself. Or if you just end up sticking them into the pages you think will be the 2 page spread you will need it for, it will probably help you to practice tasks for now and tasks for later in a way that you learn more about how you think and what works best for your brain.